The rest of my family is at church as I type this, and I must say that I miss attending worship VERY much. (I’m actually listening to John Tesh Live Worship at Red Rock as I post.) It has been 4 weeks since I have been able to go to Sun. service or Wed. night Bible study, and although I have had a visit from my pastor and numerous cards and phone calls from fellow members, there is nothing like being there in the house of God. I am very blessed to belong to a very active and prospering Presbyterian church. Today my oldest daughter, who is an Acolyte (which is like an alter-boy), will be presented with her first adult Bible. My oldest son will be going on a mission trip with our Youth Group in a few weeks to help rebuild houses in New Orleans, and my wife is faithfully attending our couple’s class without me. Even my littlest ones are learning about Jesus in their nursery class. So for now, I’m the ONLY one not doing anything worship-related and it is driving me a little nuts. They did post a nice promo page for my upcoming lecture on their website. Thankfully I’ll have time to heal completely before then. This Wed. I’m sure I’ll be ‘hanging’ on the podium at the Lee’s Hill Club, but that won’t keep me from yapping away. God is great and He’ll make sure I get through this and come out stronger on the other end.

I always like to share this poem that was apparently found on the body of a dead Confederate soldier. It certainly keeps things in perspective.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked God for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for - but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among men, most richly blessed.
Amen

Today I started working from home where I will be for the next two weeks before returning to the office. Below is a screen capture of the new splash-page that I created for my website to promote The Southern Cross. I am ‘meeting’ with our local radio folks on Monday to discuss the recording of multiple Daily Devotional readings from the book that will circulate on the air at their Fredericksburg and Lexington FM stations. Stay tuned for details on that one. I also mailed the finished files for Houses of the Holy to the publisher, so for the first time in over 2 years, I am NOT writing a manuscript. Of course Eric and I have been finalizing the outline for our baseball book project, but as that is an on-going side-venture, the pressure is off. Wow! It feels nice for a change, not to have to work on something deadline-oriented. In fact, the ONLY piece of research/writing that I have on my plate is my presentation on the life and death Sgt. Kirkland that I will be giving to the Fredericksburg Civil War Round Table at the University of Mary Washington in May. Perhaps I should get started?

This month, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Vol 116. No. 1) features what appears to be an insightful article by Christopher Lawton titled, The Pilgrim's Progress: Thomas J. Jackson's Journey Toward Civility and Citizenship. It looks to be a great piece of research/writing and I look forward to reading it very much.

I just got a PDF of the posters that were designed by Stan Huie and the good people at SPC for my upcoming lecture. I can't wait to see the printed versions. See full-scale PDF

According to an article that recently ran here in The Free Lance-Star, members trying to find new homes for the Museum of the Confederacy met with the local chapter of the NAACP. Why? With no disrespect to the organization as a whole, why meet with them, or any other special interest group? Are they investing monies in it? Are they going to have any direct influence into the decision making and operational aspects of the museum? No. This is a touchy subject for me as I live in the immediate area and would love to work there. However, I am dumbfounded at the ridiculous amount of politics that it takes to open a museum. The amount of meetings and forums that have already taken place (in which everyone and their mother think they have a say) is astounding too.

The goal, according to the story is to make sure that the ‘whole’ story of the Confederacy is told. I agree that this is crucial, BUT I also challenge those attempting to build the nearby slavery museum to tell the whole story of slavery too. I expect there to be an exhibit on how slaves were introduced and baptized into Christianity. After all, that’s part of the WHOLE story. Of course I have NO right to demand anything - and neither do they. Once again, no disrespect to these special-interest groups or their demographics, I just don't see this as any of their business. 

Anyone that thinks that this idea of trying to make everyone happy is a good thing needs to look a little deeper. It has NOTHING to do with history and everything to do with “What’s in it for me?”

Today has been an exceptionally good day for me. I am so very blessed. First, I received the good news that I will be able to use Mort Kunstler’s wonderful “Changing of the Picket’s” as the cover art on my upcoming book Houses of the Holy: Historic Churches of Fredericksburg. I won’t discuss the terms, but I am very grateful for sure. I also firmed up the delivery of all of the digital manuscript and photography files with the good folks at The History Press. That’s another one in the can and the next time that I see anything HOH-related it will be in the form of a book galley. Life is good my friends, with or without a ‘working’ back.

I wanted to share something with a little more substance today as I will be gone tomorrow having my stitches removed. Next Wed. I will finally give that presentation on ‘Backyard History’ to the good people of the Lee’s Hill ’55 Club. One of the nearby locations that I’ll be highlighting is a manor down the road called “Hilton.” And one of the associated individuals that I will be covering is a sassy little miss named Lizzie Alsop, whose father was a wealthy and influential man responsible the construction of a variety of estates in our area. Most of them are still standing today.

Here are some excerpts from my notes for the talk on Hilton and Lizzie:

Samuel Alsop Jr, Oakley's builder, was born in Spotsylvania County in March of 1776. He was the son of Samuel Alsop, Sr., and married Dorothea "Dolly" Campbell, in 1802. Alsop began to accumulate land beginning with an inheritance of acreage from his grandfather and continued to acquire large land holdings in Spotsylvania and Caroline Counties. It is estimated that he owned over $65,000 of real estate and $75,000 in personal property, which included slaves. He was the “Donald Trump’ of the day here in Fredericksburg.

In 1816, he purchased 849 acres of land from a Dr. George French and began construction of the Federal-style house that would be Oakley Farm. This dwelling was one of four such houses that he built for each of his four daughters at the time of their respective marriages. Another Alsop construction that you are probably familiar with is the Spottswood Inn that stands out on Spotsylvania Court House.  He also supervised the construction of the Old Berea Church.

At his death in 1858, Samuel and his wife lived at what today is known as ‘Breezeland’ (during the war better known as Fairview), which still stands behind the Breezewood shopping center on Route 208. Years ago I used to live in a townhouse up there in Breezewood. They had been working on that house for years and a friend and I wanted to see how the restoration turned out, so we pretended to be investors and showed up at the open house. [To this day, I would love to pick that house up and drop it in the middle of the woods somewhere.]

‘Hilton’ is the home that I would like to focus on today. (Map / photo slides). It is private property now, so I didn’t get to photograph it. But thankfully I have plenty to talk about it as we have the accounts of Elizabeth Alsop who wrote extensively about spending the Christmas of 1862 there.

Lizzie was a teenage girl during the Civil War and she kept a detailed diary that showed her contempt for the Union soldiers. She also struggled with her own faith later after realizing that the South’s Cause was lost. Like most high-society gals in 1862, Lizzie was a big supporter of the war effort. And we can tell by here writings that she was very confident about the Confederacy winning the war.

For example, on Sunday night June 29th 1862 she wrote:

Hurrah for the Southern Confederacy!!!!! Joy! Joy! Joy!!!! Glorious news! Mr. Marye has just been over to tell us the joyful news-viz! To night Mr. Green Howe Daniel came down from Mr. James Scott's, about 30 miles distant, and brought a true copy of telegraphic dispatches received by Col. Fontaine from his son in Richmond. First ran as follows McClellan's Army in retreat, our Army pursuing already they have gotten so far that the guns cannot be heard in Richmond.

According to NPS historian John Hennessy “Lizzie was just 16 when she started her diary, and it’s remarkable in many respects. She was a first-rate flirt and chronicles her flirtations thoroughly (in fact, I think hers is one of the best testimonials in existence on 19th Century courting practices). But she was also politically and culturally aware and offers some great commentary on the Union occupation, family, and destruction.”

On Dec 29th 1862 Lizzie wrote what brought them from their main estate, which I believe was called Sunnyside, to Hilton manor on the hill:

Oh the changes, the changes, to which we are subjected, some for better some for worse, but all of which are the workings of a "Mysterious Providence." I am spending Xmas, with Father Mother Nannie & Em, yet not at home. How strangely all things work together for good, if it is for our true good, that we should be driven from our loved home; so many cast on the cold charities of the world; and yet this war develops people's characters. Some we formerly believed, unselfish gentlemen of refinement & polish, show that they too can act as rudely as the merest mechanic. Others whom we consider, close, cowards, selfish & c have now come out & manifested their real selves.

Five weeks ago Father Mother Nannie, Mr. & Mrs. Allen fled from Fredericksburg, thought to be in imminent danger; and took refuge in this house [Hilton], and here they have been ever since & are likely to remain for some time. During the shelling of Fredericksburg, November 11th 1862, very few citizens remained in town, not more a hundred & fifty if so many. Uncle William & Mrs. Foulke were at our house, but after the Yankees crossed over they left. The house was very much injured, every room rendered not inhabitable except two. The garden & yard turned into the common, the furniture nearly all cut up or very much injured...

[Thanks to the wonderful folks at the NPS, I have the entire transcripts of Lizzie’s diary and plan to write something much more extensive for the newspaper, perhaps even a series if possible. It is amazing to see how even teenagers back then had such a mature and patriotic grasp on the world around them. Sadly it is something that is less common today.]

Last night I watched about 20 minutes of a documentary on paparazzi, the scourge of the entertainment world. It got me thinking about another scourge, paparazzi historians. What are those? Well much like the guerilla photographers, they themselves seem to only be able to create something by disrupting the lives of their subjects. The unfortunate reality of their existence is that they appear to be so distracted by the constant assault on the work of others; they themselves fail to contribute anything on their own. What surprises me is the self-appointed qualifications to do so that they thrust upon themselves.

• They criticize books, yet they themselves have never published one…
• They criticize films, yet they themselves have never produced one...
• They criticize heritage organizations, yet they themselves belong to none…
• They criticize newspapers and magazines, yet they themselves don’t contribute to one…
• They criticize religion, yet they themselves don’t practice one…
• They criticize declarations and license plates of states that they don’t live in…

They are the unpleasant bully in the corner of the sandbox, waiting for some one else to build something, so they can walk over and knock it down. They create nothing tangible themselves, contribute nothing for others to critique, and ultimately hamper the preservation and presentation of history despite their adoration of it.

Teenagers sometimes go through that stage when they ‘hate everything’ and walk around sulking and itching to pick an argument. These paparazzi historians never grew out of that stage. They troll the Internet, blogs, magazines, and papers, looking for something to harp on… anything remotely related.

In the end, they are so obsessed with what other people do, their entire existence turns into the criticizing of it. The worst part of all is that they think their opinions matter so much that their destructive, and at times, ignorant analysis will garner them the same respect as those that they critique.

It’s a bothersome existence to say the least. In fact, it’s a little sad as if they spent half of the energy that they do tearing other people down in the creation of something themselves, it would probably be very good.

I know, that you know these kinds of paparazzi historians too. It must be a terrible feeling to have to attack everything that you see around you all the time. Certainly, it’s no fun to be the bully.

There is an old-saying that I would like to skew for purposes here: “There are those that can do, and those that live to criticize those that can do.” I pray that I never become the latter.

Today I was meditating, OK… I was really sitting around stoned on pain meds and watching the movie 'Gettysburg' when it came to me... WHAT is historically significant about US in our time that future peoples will look back on their ‘History Channel’ and learn about?

The nauseating conclusion is that there is really nothing that we (collectively) do today that is worthy (when compared to the ancients that we study). Today, we could never engineer an empire, or build an underworld, or be considered the 'greatest generation.' Really. What have we done? It would be funny if there wasn't any truth in it.

Here’s a list of future History Channel shows that will be most likely showcasing our pathetic contributions to the timeline of man:

• Ancient Reality TV: Anything Goes
• The Idolization of American Idol
• Steroid Sports and Criminal Competitors
• Internet Porn and the First Amendment
• The ‘Me’ Generation: A History of Entitlement
• Ebonic Nation: The Secret Language of Rap
• Illegal Immigration: Everyone's Doing It
• The 2008 Election: Great Slogans - No Substance
• Cultureless: America's Forgotten Past
• 300 Channels And Nothing's On
• Ice Truckers (*I assume there will still be ice and truckers)
  

Shave and shower.

Clean jammies. 

New sheets. 

Fresh bandages.

And a Priority Mail Envelope stuffed with a fresh copy of The Southern Cross hot off the press!

Things are finally looking up.

FYI: new book signing events in the works as I type including something with the U.S. Christian Commission Museum up in Gettysburg. (details to come)

Last week I mentioned a new side-book project that I am undertaking with our friend Eric Wittenberg on Major League Baseball’s Terrible Teams and Pathetic Players. The working title is ‘USTINK’ and I have only just begun to look into the outline. I have a fairly detailed plan of action, but I am also trying very hard to pace myself. This book will take a while, perhaps a year or more, as it will be an on-again – off-again project.

One aspect of the book will be the inclusion of sidebars that include a few ‘high points’ for some of the teams that we are covering. This will be a worthwhile tidbit as even the worst bunch of bums had a run at a lucky streak once in a while. One team (IMO) personified the best of the worst. That franchise was the St. Louis Browns. Several years ago, I wrote a short piece on this team of lovable losers for the St. Louis Brown’s Society’s ‘Pop Flies’ newsletter. Here is an excerpt, which will most surely end up in one of these sidebars:

The ‘44 “St. Louis Series” by M.Aubrecht

The ongoing war between the Allies and Axis powers certainly had an impact on Major League Baseball, but never like it did in 1944. Many of the games' best players were called away for tours of duty and the result was a seriously depleted pool of talent. During an interview with the St. Louis Dispatch Marty Marion of the Cardinals (and later the Browns) reflected on the '44 season stating "Common sense had to tell you the competition wasn't as good as it was before, but as a player, you don't notice that sort of thing at all. We just played the game like that was it. We never mentioned the War. You put out nine players, we put out nine players, and we played."

The top team in the American League that year was the St. Louis Browns who collectively batted .252 in route to their only pennant. They only had one .300 hitter in outfielder Mike Kreevich (who barely made it at .301), one man with twenty home runs, shortstop Vern Stephens (who hit exactly twenty); and one player over the eighty-five runs batted in mark, Stephens, who knocked in one-hundred nine runs. On the mound, the Browns boasted Nelson Potter and Jack Kramer who combined for a mediocre thirty-six victories. Despite running a close race for first, the Browns recorded the worst A.L. attendance in history on September 29th with a total of only 6,172 fans witnessing their sweep of a double header against the New York Yankees (thanks to outfielder Chet Laabs drilling two final-day homers).

The following day, attendance doubled to an slightly-less-embarrassing 12,982 as Dennis Galehouse went the distance, winning 2-0 for his ninth victory of the year. Amazingly, just two days later, the Browns were tied with the Detroit Tigers and boasted their first sellout in over twenty years as 37,815 packed Sportsman's Park to watch their "forgotten" team clinch the pennant on the final day of the season. The victory, combined with Detroit's loss to Washington, enabled St. Louis to finish one game ahead of the Tigers in the American League. Across town, the other Major League team from St. Louis was doing business as usual. In making off with their third straight National League pennant (leading by 14½ games over Pittsburgh), manager Billy Southworth's Cardinals had won one-hundred five games and ran their three-year victory total to three-hundred sixteen.

Like Chicago, New York and St. Louis before them, the "Gateway City" was electrified with the excitement of what was billed as the "St. Louis Showdown". Surprisingly, it was the eight-time National League champion Cardinals who were tenants of the American League's downtrodden Browns in Sportsman's Park which would be the venue for the entire contest. Perhaps as an answer to the lack of pre-game respect they had received in the papers, Luke Sewell's American League titleists came out swinging against their heavily favored rivals for the 2-1 opening victory. Denny Galehouse out-pitched Series vet, Mort Cooper and George McQuinn hit a clutch, fourth-inning, two-run homer that decided Game 1. Unfortunately, the blast would prove to be the Browns' only homer in World Series history.

The Cards answered back in Game 2 with Blix Donnelly's stellar relief pitching that tallied no runs, two hits and seven strikeouts in four innings. Ken O'Dea came up big as well with a run-scoring pinch single in the eleventh for the 3-2 victory. The underdogs prevailed again in Game 3 as Jack Kramer pitched a seven-hitter and struck out ten batters on the way to a 6-2 Brown's triumph. With the Americans ahead two games to one, the more experienced Nationals proceeded to show what it takes to play in the big show.

Sig Jakucki, the thirty-five-year-old who had won thirteen games for the '44 Browns after being away from baseball for five years, lasted only three innings in Game 4, a contest in which Cards lefthander Harry Brecheen, (16-5 in the regular season) kept the American Leaguers off stride. Stan Musial finished the job with a two-run homer for the 5-1 win. The following day, Cooper, who was coming off of a twenty-two-win season, beat Galehouse with a seven-hit, 2-0 shutout. In the Cardinals' 1942-1943-1944 stranglehold on the National League championship, Cooper had won sixty-five games and thrown twenty-three shutouts. For Game 6, it was Max Lanier and Ted Walks (who both had seventeen wins and shared a 2.65 ERA), that wrote the final chapter to the Brown's "Cinderella season" with a 3-1 victory that wrapped up the Cardinals' second Series title in three years. It was the eighth appearance in nineteen seasons for the World Champions, while it was the first (and last) Fall Classic in the Browns' 52-year history.

Musial later summed up the contest stating "The funny thing about that World Series (in 1944), the fans were rooting for the Browns, and it kind of surprised me because we drew more fans than the Browns during the season. The fans were rooting for the underdog, and I was surprised about that, but after you analyze the situation in St. Louis, the Browns in the old days had good clubs. They had great players like George Sisler and Kenny Williams, and the fans who were there were older fans, older men, old-time Brownie fans. But it was a tough series."